gismorail

What one must understand whether one is a customer or someone who reads this thread to keep up to date on progress is that SLW having produced such a top class model are in a very unique situation and in a position to market any forthcoming models at their own pace. As to what the mainstream manufacturers are going to produce should not really affect any plans that are in the pipeline. Whatever is produced is going to be in a totally different league in all aspects and more than likely is available from another manufacturer already. As long as the model is a mainstream locomotive which has high levels of appeal and can be produced in varying liveries etc then they are going to get a return on their investment. By cleaver marketing and very high engineering standards SLW are producing a 'niche' product and although this does not mean that there are no financial risks involved it is a good position to be in. I most certainly feel that there is no sniping or criticising of other manufacturers intended but a clear intention to make sure that whatever model is announced can be produced in a realistic time scale and at a standard that it's customers now expect.

with so bondage

with ugly stick

wearing some slippers

with local tart

Just an update on progress regarding the installation of the DCC wiring loom. Today's objective has been to make up the looms and bus-wire on the first board. The tangle of wires has been sorted into pairs and the location of the droppers labelled so that when working beneath the base boards I know exactly which set of wires come from. This might seem a bit OTT to some but if you've ever been under neath a baseboard on your hands and knees looking upwards trying to get one's bearings you'll know what I'm on about. :scratchhead:Once the wires have been made up into pairs I have run them into looms which run to the edges of the boards and then to the back of the layout where the bus-wire is to be located. This shot shows the first part of DCC loom put together and fixed to the cross member of the base board. The bus wire is made up of 1.25 house hold lighting cable which is multi-stranded . (left over from wiring the shed and although it's not exactly the right colour code some correct coloured insulating tape markers will rectify this problem) I have used multi stranded wire so that I get a good solder grip when attaching the droppers. The bus-wire has been located along the back of the base boards so that the feed wires from the DCC control system can be easily tapped into in a position that can be decided once the loom wiring has been completed and the ideal operating location can be determined. (This will become clearer later on as the wiring develops ) The following photographs show how the dropper wires are located into the bus-wire. Cable strippers carefully open up wire casing Soldering flux paste is applied to exposed cable strands Bus-wire is 'tinned' and ready for droppers wires to be connected Wire droppers have been soldered into bus-wire and to add extra strength a spot of hot glue has been applied to each joint which will also insulate the connection. This shot also shows the simple two way connection plug onto board 2. The final photograph shows the completed DCC loom and bus-wire on the first base-board. I hope that this gives some ideas for people who have not wired a DCC bus-wire before and although I'm not claiming to be an expert in this subject I have found that it works well and without problems.

You are so correct about warm & cosy and I'm hoping the wiring will be a doddle but the most important factor will be the fault finding especially at exhibitions, though having said that I hoping tidy and careful wiring will eliminate any problems. Regarding the operating position, I have pondered this and although Chester Northgate Shed can be operated from front or back and does make it very flexible, I have decided it will be operated from behind as some of the controls will be set into the rear of the layout plus the access to the fiddle yards.

Thanks Trev, it is a great to have some heating again.... suddenly Cold Harbour house becomes home again . Glad to be pushing on with the layout again too but not sure where the logic is

bully in the

Amazing it's difficult to comprehend that this is a model such detail and the sheer scale of the subject is awesome .

Well further progress again today 'got fed up of knocking the kitchen about late afternoon and decided to do something constructive so moved into the man cave Did a final check to make sure that all the droppers wires were in place and very carefully got the razor saw to the baseboard joint tracks and successfully separated the two main base boards. As described earlier in the thread I have made the legs for this layout so that they slot into the end of the boards mainly with setting up at exhibitions in mind. The downside of this means that it's somewhat difficult to put the boards on their sides for wiring so the main job for today was to get out the staging from Chester Northgate Shed so that i could get things set up for some serious wire sorting tomorrow. Just some pictures to show how I have set myself up for the wiring process as I feel it's important to make sure that everything is easy to get at during this stage of the layout build and hopefully help to reduce any mistakes.

Told you I'm pushing the boundaries and looking outside the envelope and trying to keep you in the loop

by traffic officers

I know where you coming from on that Andy but I want to make a distinction on the point polarity wiring as I'm incorporating the Megapoint Control System which is going to be wired in a separate wiring loom and each servo will have micro switches alongside. I know that I could use 'frog juicers for a simple solution to polarity change over but micro switches are cheap and reliable like the servo's and not to technical for my poor old steam powered grey matter All the cleaver stuff is done by the Meggapoint Control boards and a nice man from 'Northwich' which is where the costs are in this project . , I mean I'm pushing the boundaries here I know and it might all land up in tears and having putting on hear the whole world will know

It will certainly match the work of IKB himself

did i indeed

Have done a bit of wiring BOSS!!!!! (such a hard slave driver sir ) .....better news is that the new central heating boiler is now installed and the house is warm ....hot and scorching WONDERFULL The down side is there's now No Kitchen My new darkside is lurking beneath the baseboards

Wiring Chumley End Continued Well further 'dropper' wiring has continued over the weekend and I'm finally glad to say that this has now been completed. I have gone for a simple colour coding on this by using black wire on the back track and red on the front track simple me thinks . I always fit this part of the wiring in first as it involves drilling the base boards many times and at this stage of the construction there is nothing fixed the the underside to damage, I have carefully worked my way through the track formation marking each location that requires a dropper Simple marker pen location marks The resulting and tangle of wires and this is just the start....... Who said DCC is just two wires should had said just 'two colours ..... So this is the first part of the wiring completed and this will be linked up to the 'buswire' that will be located along the underside of the baseboard at the back .....and will be labelled Loom 1. DCC supply . There will be two plug in control points one on next of the two boards. The fiddle yards require no electrical feeds due to the design of the cassette systems that I have used The other part of the wiring that can be completed before the layout boards are turn on their sides are the point feed / polarity wires these again have been colour coded for easy identification Blue frog / Purple back / yellow front Another addition to my 'Gizmo's for the workshop was this electricians labelling machine from Maplins (cost £19.99) which I thought was a good deal as it will help with the clear identifications of all those conections etc. So the next task is to make all the electrical breaks that are required in the track work and double checking that there are no shorts circuits then it's time to go 'underground' and make some sort of sense of all those wires ......oh the joys of building a model railway

I know I might get thrown out of RM WEB for this but as I too am getting teased and tormented as to 'whats coming next' I thought I might start a 'book' So lets have a starter at 25/1 on a Class 25 .................... ...Well I've got to make some money to pay for the next so payments to be made to' Gismo's SLW gift aid please' To be serious Phil must be delighted about the response to his engineering master pieces and I think that a lot of modellers are worried about missing out on anything that comes out .......hence the clamour for information ...bet the mainstream companies wish their products hit such heights of interest ....

Well deserved young man ....your getting quite good at this modelling thing aren't you Can't understand how though must be something to do with the fact that it didn't get broken up .......I'll leave quickly .....................

no you did't

Thanks for that info will check it out Cheers

You talking about me !!!!!!! Sorry could'nt resist .....................sharp exit

yes I did

don't give XXX